The Story of Doctor Dolittle: Being the History of His Peculiar Life at Home and Astonishing Adventures in Foreign Parts Never Before Printed (7 page)

VERY, very quietly, making sure that no one should see
her, Polynesia then slipped out at the back of the tree
and flew across to the prison.

She found Gub-Gub poking his nose through
the bars of the window, trying to sniff the
cooking-smells that came from the palace-
kitchen. She told the pig to bring the Doctor
to the window because she wanted to speak to
him. So Gub-Gub went and woke the Doctor
who was taking a nap.

"Listen," whispered the parrot, when John
Dolittle's face appeared: "Prince Bumpo is
coming here to-night to see you. And you've
got to find some way to turn him white. But
be sure to make him promise you first that he
will open the prison-door and find a ship for
you to cross the sea in."

"This is all very well," said the Doctor.
"But it isn't so easy to turn a black man white.
You speak as though he were a dress to be re-
dyed. It's not so simple. 'Shall the leopard
change his spots, or the Ethiopian his skin,' you
know?"

"I don't know anything about that," said
Polynesia impatiently. "But you MUST turn this
man white. Think of a way—think hard.
You've got plenty of medicines left in the bag.
He'll do anything for you if you change his
color. It is your only chance to get out of
prison."

"Well, I suppose it MIGHT be possible," said
the Doctor. "Let me see—," and he went over
to his medicine-bag, murmuring something
about "liberated chlorine on animal-pigment—
perhaps zinc-ointment, as a temporary measure,
spread thick—"

Well, that night Prince Bumpo came secretly
to the Doctor in prison and said to him,

"White Man, I am an unhappy prince.
Years ago I went in search of The Sleeping
Beauty, whom I had read of in a book. And
having traveled through the world many days,
I at last found her and kissed the lady very
gently to awaken her—as the book said I should.
'Tis true indeed that she awoke. But when
she saw my face she cried out, 'Oh, he's black!'
And she ran away and wouldn't marry me—but
went to sleep again somewhere else. So I came
back, full of sadness, to my father's kingdom.
Now I hear that you are a wonderful magician
and have many powerful potions. So I come to
you for help. If you will turn me white, so
that I may go back to The Sleeping Beauty, I
will give you half my kingdom and anything
besides you ask."

"Prince Bumpo," said the Doctor, looking
thoughtfully at the bottles in his medicine-bag,
"supposing I made your hair a nice blonde
color—would not that do instead to make you
happy?"

"No," said Bumpo. "Nothing else will
satisfy me. I must be a white prince."

"You know it is very hard to change the color
of a prince," said the Doctor—"one of the hardest
things a magician can do. You only want
your face white, do you not?"

"Yes, that is all," said Bumpo. "Because I
shall wear shining armor and gauntlets of steel,
like the other white princes, and ride on a
horse."

"Must your face be white all over?" asked the Doctor.

"Yes, all over," said Bumpo—"and I would
like my eyes blue too, but I suppose that would
be very hard to do."

"Yes, it would," said the Doctor quickly.
"Well, I will do what I can for you. You will
have to be very patient though—you know with
some medicines you can never be very sure. I
might have to try two or three times. You have
a strong skin—yes? Well that's all right.
Now come over here by the light—Oh, but before
I do anything, you must first go down to
the beach and get a ship ready, with food in it,
to take me across the sea. Do not speak a word
of this to any one. And when I have done as
you ask, you must let me and all my animals
out of prison. Promise—by the crown of Jolliginki!"

So the Prince promised and went away to get
a ship ready at the seashore.

When he came back and said that it was done,
the Doctor asked Dab-Dab to bring a basin.
Then he mixed a lot of medicines in the basin
and told Bumpo to dip his face in it.

The Prince leaned down and put his face in
—right up to the ears.

He held it there a long time—so long that
the Doctor seemed to get dreadfully anxious
and fidgety, standing first on one leg and then
on the other, looking at all the bottles he had
used for the mixture, and reading the labels on
them again and again. A strong smell filled
the prison, like the smell of brown paper
burning.

At last the Prince lifted his face up out of the
basin, breathing very hard. And all the animals
cried out in surprise.

For the Prince's face had turned as white as
snow, and his eyes, which had been mud-colored,
were a manly gray!

When John Dolittle lent him a little looking-
glass to see himself in, he sang for joy and
began dancing around the prison. But the
Doctor asked him not to make so much noise
about it; and when he had closed his medicine-bag
in a hurry he told him to open the prison-door.

Bumpo begged that he might keep the looking-
glass, as it was the only one in the Kingdom
of Jolliginki, and he wanted to look at himself
all day long. But the Doctor said he needed
it to shave with.

Then the Prince, taking a bunch of copper
keys from his pocket, undid the great double
locks. And the Doctor with all his animals ran
as fast as they could down to the seashore; while
Bumpo leaned against the wall of the empty
dungeon, smiling after them happily, his big
face shining like polished ivory in the light of
the moon.

When they came to the beach they saw
Polynesia and Chee-Chee waiting for them on the
rocks near the ship.

"I feel sorry about Bumpo," said the Doctor.

"I am afraid that medicine I used will never
last. Most likely he will be as black as ever
when he wakes up in the morning—that's one
reason why I didn't like to leave the mirror with
him. But then again, he MIGHT stay white—I
had never used that mixture before. To tell the
truth, I was surprised, myself, that it worked
so well. But I had to do something, didn't I?
—I couldn't possibly scrub the King's kitchen
for the rest of my life. It was such a dirty
kitchen!—I could see it from the prison-
window.—Well, well!—Poor Bumpo!"

"Oh, of course he will know we were just
joking with him," said the parrot.

"They had no business to lock us up," said Dab-Dab,
waggling her tail angrily. "We never did them any harm.
Serve him right, if he does turn black again! I hope it's
a dark black."

"But HE didn't have anything to do with it,"
said the Doctor. "It was the King, his father,
who had us locked up—it wasn't Bumpo's fault.
...I wonder if I ought to go back and apologize—
Oh, well—I'll send him some candy
when I get to Puddleby. And who knows?—
he may stay white after all."

"The Sleeping Beauty would never have him,
even if he did," said Dab-Dab. "He looked
better the way he was, I thought. But he'd
never be anything but ugly, no matter what
color he was made."

"Still, he had a good heart," said the Doctor
—"romantic, of course—but a good heart.
After all, 'handsome is as handsome does.'"

"I don't believe the poor booby found The
Sleeping Beauty at all," said Jip, the dog.
"Most likely he kissed some farmer's fat wife
who was taking a snooze under an apple-tree.
Can't blame her for getting scared! I wonder
who he'll go and kiss this time. Silly business!"

Then the pushmi-pullyu, the white mouse,
Gub-Gub, Dab-Dab, Jip and the owl, Too-Too,
went on to the ship with the Doctor. But Chee-
Chee, Polynesia and the crocodile stayed behind,
because Africa was their proper home, the land
where they were born.

And when the Doctor stood upon the boat, he
looked over the side across the water. And then
he remembered that they had no one with them
to guide them back to Puddleby.

The wide, wide sea looked terribly big and
lonesome in the moonlight; and he began to
wonder if they would lose their way when they
passed out of sight of land.

But even while he was wondering, they heard
a strange whispering noise, high in the air,
coming through the night. And the animals all
stopped saying Good-by and listened.

The noise grew louder and bigger. It seemed
to be coming nearer to them—a sound like the
Autumn wind blowing through the leaves of a
poplar-tree, or a great, great rain beating down
upon a roof.

And Jip, with his nose pointing and his tail
quite straight, said,

"Birds!—millions of them—flying fast—that's it!"

And then they all looked up. And there,
streaming across the face of the moon, like a
huge swarm of tiny ants, they could see thousands
and thousands of little birds. Soon the
whole sky seemed full of them, and still more
kept coming—more and more. There were so
many that for a little they covered the whole
moon so it could not shine, and the sea grew
dark and black—like when a storm-cloud passes
over the sun.

And presently all these birds came down close,
skimming over the water and the land; and the
night-sky was left clear above, and the moon
shone as before. Still never a call nor a cry
nor a song they made—no sound but this great
rustling of feathers which grew greater now
than ever. When they began to settle on the
sands, along the ropes of the ship—anywhere
and everywhere except the trees—the Doctor
could see that they had blue wings and white
breasts and very short, feathered legs. As soon
as they had all found a place to sit, suddenly,
there was no noise left anywhere—all was quiet;
all was still.

And in the silent moonlight John Dolittle
spoke:

"I had no idea that we had been in Africa
so long. It will be nearly Summer when we
get home. For these are the swallows going
back. Swallows, I thank you for waiting for
us. It is very thoughtful of you. Now we need
not be afraid that we will lose our way upon the
sea.... Pull up the anchor and set the sail!"

When the ship moved out upon the water,
those who stayed behind, Chee-Chee, Polynesia
and the crocodile, grew terribly sad. For never
in their lives had they known any one they liked
so well as Doctor John Dolittle of Puddleby-on-
the-Marsh.

And after they had called Good-by to him
again and again and again, they still stood there
upon the rocks, crying bitterly and waving till
the ship was out of sight.

SAILING homeward, the Doctor's ship had to pass the coast
of Barbary. This coast is the seashore of the Great Desert.
It is a wild, lonely place—all sand and stones. And it was
here that the Barbary pirates lived.

These pirates, a bad lot of men, used to wait
for sailors to be shipwrecked on their shores.
And often, if they saw a boat passing, they would
come out in their fast sailing-ships and chase it.
When they caught a boat like this at sea, they
would steal everything on it; and after they had
taken the people off they would sink the ship
and sail back to Barbary singing songs and feeling
proud of the mischief they had done. Then
they used to make the people they had caught
write home to their friends for money. And if
the friends sent no money, the pirates often
threw the people into the sea.

Now one sunshiny day the Doctor and Dab-
Dab were walking up and down on the ship
for exercise; a nice fresh wind was blowing the
boat along, and everybody was happy. Presently
Dab-Dab saw the sail of another ship a
long way behind them on the edge of the sea.
It was a red sail.

"I don't like the look of that sail," said Dab-
Dab. "I have a feeling it isn't a friendly ship.
I am afraid there is more trouble coming to us."

Jip, who was lying near taking a nap in the
sun, began to growl and talk in his sleep.

"I smell roast beef cooking," he mumbled—
"underdone roast beef—with brown gravy over it."

"Good gracious!" cried the Doctor. "What's
the matter with the dog? Is he SMELLING in his
sleep—as well as talking?"

"I suppose he is," said Dab-Dab. "All dogs
can smell in their sleep."

"But what is he smelling?" asked the Doctor.

"There is no roast beef cooking on our ship."
"No," said Dab-Dab. "The roast beef must
be on that other ship over there."

"But that's ten miles away," said the Doctor.
"He couldn't smell that far surely!"

"Oh, yes, he could," said Dab-Dab. "You ask him."

Then Jip, still fast asleep, began to growl
again and his lip curled up angrily, showing
his clean, white teeth.

"I smell bad men," he growled—"the worst
men I ever smelt. I smell trouble. I smell a
fight—six bad scoundrels fighting against one
brave man. I want to help him. Woof—oo—WOOF!"
Then he barked, loud, and woke himself up with
a surprised look on his face.

"See!" cried Dab-Dab. "That boat is nearer now.
You can count its three big sails—all red.
Whoever it is, they are coming after us....
I wonder who they are."

"They are bad sailors," said Jip; "and their
ship is very swift. They are surely the pirates
of Barbary."

"Well, we must put up more sails on our
boat," said the Doctor, "so we can go faster and
get away from them. Run downstairs, Jip, and
fetch me all the sails you see."

The dog hurried downstairs and dragged up
every sail he could find.

But even when all these were put up on the
masts to catch the wind, the boat did not go
nearly as fast as the pirates'—which kept coming
on behind, closer and closer.

"This is a poor ship the Prince gave us," said
Gub-Gub, the pig—"the slowest he could find,
I should think. Might as well try to win a race
in a soup-tureen as hope to get away from them
in this old barge. Look how near they are now!
—You can see the mustaches on the faces of the
men—six of them. What are we going to do?"